


Soul Stuck

by The_Loser_Army



Category: Homestuck, Soul Eater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soul Eater Fusion, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, My First Fanfic, Weapons and meisters, playing it fast and loose with this au, the beginning makes it seem like it's going to be Equius and Nepeta-centric but it's not, wow it's so fun how I don't anything about soul eater
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22917721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Loser_Army/pseuds/The_Loser_Army
Summary: This EAT class is shaken up when one student disappears, one flunks out, and two show up mysteriously all in the same semester.  How can they become death scythes and successful meisters when they can't even sort out their own interpersonal drama?
Relationships: Dave Strider & Dirk Strider, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Eridan Ampora & Feferi Peixes, Eridan Ampora & Kanaya Maryam, Gamzee Makara & Kanaya Maryam, Jake English & Tavros Nitram, Jake English/Dirk Strider, John Egbert & Jade Harley, Nepeta Leijon & Equius Zahhak, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Sollux Captor/Aradia Megido, Sollux Captor/Feferi Peixes, Tavros Nitram & Vriska Serket, Terezi Pyrope & Vriska Serket, Terezi Pyrope/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic. Barely edited, I mostly want to practice wrangling my au ideas into stories. I will probably update eventually. The next chapter will be at the school and will feature some of the established weapon/meister pairs. please feel free to leave a comment.

It was unusual for DWMA to accept two new meisters midway through the semester, but not as unusual as it was for them to find two children, obvious runaways, standing over the body of a kishin egg they had just killed, armed only with a shitty, broken, katana.  
Equius and Nepeta had been sent on a mission hunting down a kishin egg and had managed to track it into a dead end alley. Nepeta had her nose to the ground as she crawled around on all fours following the rancid, rotting odor of the monster bearing the kishin egg soul. She turned to Equius and said in a tone lacking the appropriate severity. “He’s purr-right in here, from what I can tell he fur-ollowed two kids in there so we better purrr-y!”  
Equius sighed and nodded, holding out his hand to her in expectation. She moved into a crouch from her position on the ground and waggling her rear a little in preparation, leapt into the air, turning in a flip before dissolving into a ball of light and reforming on Equius’s arm as a kind of gauntlet that ended in a set of three claw-like knives jutting out past his fingers. He heard a voice echoing through their bond as he crept towards the alley opening, "Be careful Equius, this guys supposed to be furry strong!".  
Sweat started to drip down his face and he wiped it off on the back of his non-armed hand before replying, “I’ll keep that in mind”.  
He began walking down the alley and heard the sounds of a fight echoing from the far end. He ran towards what sounded like clashing metal and a girl yelling. THe ally was longer and more winding than they had anticipated and they were still a few dozen yards away when the noises stopped, the pounding of Equius’s footsteps the only thing breaking up the quiet night.  
“DAMN IT… I’m sorry Nepeta please excuse my language, I am afraid we might be too late to save those kids,” Equius spoke aloud to the weapon on his arm.  
Nepeta's voice came through their bond once again. "Don’t lose hope yet, they might still be alive, furr-ight now we need to focus on getting to them and killing that kishin egg!"  
“You’re right.”  
Equius reached the end of the alley right as their conversation ended. He raced in, afraid that any time used to scope out the situation would be time the kids they hoped to rescue didn’t have. Weapon ready Equius barreled into the slight open space that made up the rest of the alley, hoping to take the kishin egg by surprise. What he encountered there made him stop short, his feet digging slightly into the ground, crushing the concrete he stood on. In the middle of the space floated the kishin egg they were hunting, hovering slightly above the dead body of what was once a human criminal. Hunched nearby were two children about the same age as Equius an dNepeta, their white hair almost glowing in the moonlight in the places where it wasn't marred with blood. One appeared to be a boy and the other a girl. They looked injured and exhausted, and hanging limply from the hand of the boy was a familiar looking broken katana.  
“This is highly unusual,” Equius said as Nepeta dropped off of his arm, reforming a few feet away as a girl.  
Squinting her eyes and cocking her head as she appraised the scene before her, Nepeta waited a moment before responding. “I think we need to make a visit to Lord Death”.


	2. Disappearing Act

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before the two runaways were found one of the DWMA EAT class students disappeared, leaving a devastated partner behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't even proofread this bitch. Please let me know if anything is confusing or doesn't make sense. I've got all the major things lined out but details keep getting tangled. :/ If you're wondering, this is set in the soul eater universe, but should be exclusively homestuck characters. It doesn't follow the plot of either franchise and some of the details of the soul eater world are changed, it's not like I went through and changed the characters out, it's an original story. I'm stating this because I am picky about my fanfiction, lol. There are going to be alpha kids, beta kids, and alpha trolls (I think? the group of trolls with Karkat), ancestors as needed, and beta guardians as needed. There shouldn't be any troll Dancestors, but I might throw one or two in if I need a filler character.

Sollux spent the first few days after Aradia left inconsolable. He didn’t join the search parties, or take part in Jane’s investigations. He sat curled up on the floor of his room, surrounded by a ball of soul static that kept anyone seeking to comfort him away. Even Karkat was forced to scream his motivational rants and curses from a few yards away so as to keep himself from getting fried. Surprisingly the power surging from his thin body didn’t seem to affect the electronics scattered throughout the room. That didn’t save the laptop he had been salvaging for spare parts when he suddenly stood up from his position, walked over to the desk it was sitting on, and smashed it to the ground before stomping the husk of a machine into shards of mechanical bits. The grief and rage was understandable, she was his girlfriend and his weapon partner and she had left him with no warning, abandoning the life she had built for herself at the academy completely.

If he had left his room and looked at the apartment she had shared with Tavros he would have found that she had left all of her clothes and belongings behind, even her school bag, still filled with essays and textbooks. If he had asked Tavros he would have told him what he had been too nervous to tell Jane when she had looked through the plae. Aradia had left a note as well.

xXx

Aradia had always been a morning person, even when she had been up all night the night before. Tavros had heard her shuffling around her room at four am when Tinkerbull had woken him up for an emergency bathroom break. When she hadn’t come into breakfast he had assumed that she was sleeping in after her late night. When it was time to leave for class and he still hadn’t seen or heard from the wild haired girl he thought maybe she had gotten sick, although he had never seen her ill before. 

He wheeled his way to her room to see if she needed him to pick her up some medicine or call Dr. Delarosa, but she didn't answer when he called her name through the door. Worried, he stammered out a quick “Umm, hey… Aradia. I’m, uh, coming in to check on you, so, uh, please don’t be mad, or, um, naked I guess,” before pushing the door open.

The first thing he saw was Aradia's neatly made bed. After he wheeled his way into the room he saw that everything was as neatly organized as ever. Nothing was out of place, her uniform was laid out on the foot of her bed, her bookbag was beside the door. The only thing strance was the folded sheet of paper sitting underneath a glass of water on her nightstand. Picking it up, careful not to spill any of the water on it, he read what she had written. Blood drained from his face. Not knowing what to do he called Karkat, giving only a panicked overview of the situation, that Aradia was gone and she wasn’t coming back. Karkat informed Terezi and Lord Death and from there the search and investigation sprung. Before Jane made her way over to do her sleuthing or anyone else came to try and figure out where she had gone, however, Darkleer, the school’s handyman came to the apartment door. His large frame blocked out the morning light, leaving him a shadow in the doorframe. He took the note from where Tavros was still worrying it between his hands. He read over it quickly, a troubled frown taking over his face. Resting his hand gently but firmly on the top of Tavros’s partially shaved head he asked a question, “How much of this did you read?”.

Feeling the way the grown man’s fingers wrapped around his skull and knowing the power they possessed Tavros decided his answer, “I only read through the part where she said she was running away. After that I panicked and called Karkat''.

Darkleer repeated the boy’s words back to him, “You only read that part”. It was an order, not a statement.

xXx

Sadly, Sollux didn’t ask. He ended up passing out on the floor of his room from exertion. Karkat and Feferi marched in immediately and carried his lanky form to the Dolorosa, the school’s medical officer. As soon as they got him onto one of the cots the older woman out him on a fluid drip to try and regain some of the water he had lost during his outburst. She also readied a sedative in case he repeated his performance upon waking. Karkat and Feferi stayed by his bedside for the next several hours, with some of their classmates drifting in and out, either to check on Sollux or to update the other two on the state of the investigation. Eventually Karkat started to fall asleep in his chair and the Dolorosa sent him home. He grumbled a bit, but didn’t have the energy to truly argue with her; a testament to how tired he was. Feferi sat by herself watching Sollux breathe while the Dolorosa busied herself in the more clerical side of her job. About an hour later Sollux woke up with a jolt — literally. As soon as he regained consciousness he sat up and let out a burst of electricity, causing Feferi beside him to let out a yelp at the shock. He looked over at her wide eyed before letting out a sincere sounding “I’m sorry, Fef. I didn’t mean to do that.”

She replied to him with a smile, “Thats alright, you’ve been through a lot today Sollux, it’s pretty understandable that you’d be a little jumpy!”.

“Yeah, but… I hurt you,” he said, “Theres no excuse —”

“Oh stop your pity party,” Feferi interrupted, smoothing her hair back down to it’s usual level of fluffiness from where the shock had puffed it up, “It takes more than a little static to get to me, and you know that!”.

Sollux sighed, “Thanks Fef”. After that he visibly calmed down, but there was still a downcast look on his face.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Feferi asked.

“I guess I’m going to have to drop out now”. There was a desolation in his tone.

“Don’t be dramatic,” she said, but he could see by her face that what she was troubled by what she said.

“How am I being Dramatic? I don’t have a weapon, this is a school for weapon meister pairs, I can’t exactly just go around asking kishin eggs for their souls, can I?” His voice edged back towards the blind panic he had exhibited earlier that day.

Feferi took a breath before saying in a calming tone, “You can find a new weapon, Sollux”.

“Of course I can, because there are so many demon weapons just running around that can resonate with my screwy ass soul,” he threw himself into the statement, his voice coming out raspy and his face curling into a self-deprecating smile.

“There are some,” Feferi wasn’t quite facing him and her voice came out weak. She had just made a decision. It was one long-coming, but the weight of it took her breath away.

“Without meisters?” Sollux was flippant, he didn’t yet understand what she was getting at.

“I could be your weapon,” Feferi was more confident now. She knew what she wanted. This was best for the both of them.

“Fef—” he sounded shocked.

“Hear me out,” she said, whirling around, a look of determination on her face, “It’s not like Eridan is a great partner, and we know our souls are compatible”.

“I know that, but still, can you really just ditch him?” he asked, not yet sold on basically stealing another meister’s partner.

She had a look of determination on her face. “It will be good for him too! You know he’s kind of a douche bag and it’s like since he knows I can resonate with him anyway he doesn't even try to be more personable!” She was speaking passionately, leaned over onto Sollux’s hospital bed. She looked a little sheepish.

“Also I think he wants our relationship to be more…. Romantic… and I don’t think I’m exactly comfortable with that, but you know how he is, I don’t think he’ll take no for an answer”.

“Fef—”.

“And I know that you and Aradia were really close, and I don’t want to replace her or anything, I just think that given the situation this might be the best plan for both of us and I know it’s selfish to ask — ”.

Sollux interrupted her in a stern voice, “Breathe Feferi”.

She pulled in a large breath, “I’m Sorry Sollux it’s just — ”.

“Yes.”

She blinked at him for a second, “What?”.

“I said yes,” he looked her in the eyes as he spoke, “If you’re really sure about this, then I’m in. I trust you Feferi, and I’d love to be your partner”. 

Feferi had tears in her eyes as she threw herself completely onto Sollux’s little bed. “OW! Fuck! Feferi I have tubes in my arms, what the fuck! That hurts! Fuck!” Feferi ignored his protests as she sob-laughed onto his stomach.

The Dolorosa smiled from her desk, remembering her own youth and the joys and dramas that went with it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it isn't clear Aradia was the weapon partner of Sollux (a meister). She is a whip! I might publish a list of who is a weapon and who is a meister, as well as what type of weapon they are if anyone is interested. On that note the partner situation is going to get a little tricky so if you guys think it will be helpful I might start posting lists of weapons and partners and updating them as things change. Please let me know what you think and anything that might help improve the work, Thanks for reading!


	3. Trust Issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting switched around in the EAT class, and with people leaving and coming in to the classroom the fun isn't over yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment if you like it, or you hate it, or you have general criticism. This is one of my first works, and the only one that has multiple chapters and a complicated plot. I would love to know what I'm doing right, or what I'm doing wrong, or what I could do to make this fic better. I'm pretty sure I'm fucking up the punctuation on the dialogue, and I should really know better, but it is what it is right now. If you want to end my many crimes please comment. Owl Purdue is a free and wonderful resource and I am spitting right in it's face. It's despicable.

Jake walked through the hall pouting. He had had another interaction with Jane that was mostly her being passive aggressive, and this one had ended with her switching to just straightforward aggression. She had been dropping hints since he and Dirk had broken up that she thought she would make a much better partner (of the romantic variety, she had no interest in joining the rest of them in the EAT class) for him. It seemed that the frustration of Aradia’s disappearance going unresolved had left her with no patience left to put up with him dodging her questions and avoiding talking about his love life. She had chewed him out pretty good when he tried to talk about an upcoming test (it was for a general studies subject, so the NOT class was covering the unit as well), and made it clear that she was no longer talking to him unless he was planning on giving her a straight answer. Hence the pouting. He didn’t naturally pout, his grandmother wasn’t one to entertain childish expressions of frustration and had trained him out of it, but he was looking for sympathy, and, selfish as it may have been, he knew DIrk was weak to a pout and would surely comfort him if he made himself pathetic enough. He didn’t even have to tell him why Jane was angry. Though there was little to no chance his best friend, ex boyfriend, and weapon partner was not aware of what had been going on between Jake and Jane since they broke up. The boy had a nearly scary level of perception. 

Jake felt eyes on him as he made his way through the school as he looked for his partner. Ever since his breakup he had become the most eligible bachelor at DWMA. It was rare he went more than a day or two without hearing some sort of love confession. He usually warded it off with some malarky about how “His adventurous spirit could not be tied down”, or “[addressing whoever was confessing to him that day], you’re simply too good for me, I can’t give you the time and attention you deserve, not when I have to focus on being the best meister I can be. I’m sure you understand”, paired with a dewy eyed look of sincerity. If that didn’t work he could pull out his trump card, “Well, I did just exit a long term relationship, and when you have to work everyday with your ex, I’m just not sure how he would take it”. If only Jane were so easily let down, but it was hard to blame Dirk’s feelings when she knew exactly who had broken up with who. 

A lot had changed since that day, but Jake was hopeful that with time and effort everything would go back to how it used to be. He just needed to work on himself. Specifically he needed to master the art of resonating while simultaneously closing off all access to his soul, a talent that seemed to come naturally to Dirk.

Not finding him wandering the halls, Jake decided to head to the room Dirk was most likely to be in. He would have preferred for their meeting to seem accidental, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He paused as he reached the doors of the practice arena, relaxing his face for a moment before replacing his puppy dog look. He was about to open the door when he was stopped by the muffled sound of a conversation. The school had a separate gym, so Dirk was usually the only one using the arena for sparring or practice. Jake let the pout drop again before he opened the door. The door he was entering led onto the practice floor. There were three people on this level of the arena. The first was Mr. Signless, a death scythe and one of the EAT class professors, he was talking two two younger blonde boys, both wearing shades. Jake recognized one as Dirk, but the other was a stranger. All heads turned towards Jake as he opened the door. Jake put on a smile and tried to act like he wasn’t embarrassed to have barged in to what appeared to be some kind of meeting.

“Well hello chaps, sorry to have interrupted,” he said, keeping his voice as chipper and smooth as possible.

Mr. Signless answered, looking a bit confused, “No problem, Jake. I can’t say I expected you, but I guess it makes sense. I’m really glad you’re here, that says a lot to your character”. Jake had no idea what the man was talking about. The boy Jake didn’t know looked confused as well, and Dirk, as usual, had a face that said absolutely nothing. He was wearing his shades. Ever since Dirk had broken up with him, Jake hadn’t seen the boy not wearing his shades. Jake approached the strange blonde with his hand extended. “I don’t believe we’ve met, I’ll have to introduce myself, the name’s Jake English”, Jake said, shooting what he hoped was a confident smile.

The boy returned his handshake, his grip strong, “Dave Strider”.

Mr. Signless took over the introduction from there, “We found Dave about a week ago living on the streets along with a girl, Rose. We decided to take them both into the academy as members of the EAT class. We’re working on pairing them with weapons partners now”.

Jake let out a small surprised laugh, “Transfers this late in the semester, and in the Eat class? That's pretty rare”.

Mr. Signless nodded, “It was an unusual situation. They killed a kishin egg that was attacking them with one of Dirk’s soul swords they had found. Luckily it didn’t break until they had already struck the killing blow”, at this he turned toward Dirk, “that power of yours is quite remarkable, but not dependable, and not good for you in the long term. He sighed, “hopefully this will help”.

Jake snapped his head towards Dirk, surprised, “A sword broke, you got a piece of your soul back? Why didn’t you say anything?”.

Dirk swallowed and waited a moment before replying, “I didn’t think it mattered”. Jake couldn’t see his friend’s eyes through the dark glasses, but he was certain that Dirk wasn’t making eye contact with him. Jake was angry. As a demon weapon, Dirk was already a rarity, but he also possessed a special ability. Dirk could imbue his soul into a common weapon, making it effective against kishin eggs, witches, or demon weapons, like he himself would be as a demon weapon. The two downsides to this were that the swords broke far more easily than an actual demon weapon would, and that Dirk ripped a piece of his soul out to make them, only getting the part of his soul back when the weapon was broken, releasing the soul chunk. Jake didn’t know what exactly Dirk was doing before he was taken into the academy a few years before, but he did know that his soul was missing a lot of pieces. They had been trying to limit the amount of “shitty katanas” as Dirk liked to call them that were made, and their goal was to track down the remaining katanas and release the missing pieces of soul after Jake turned Dirk into a death scythe. “It doesn’t matter?”, Jake spluttered, “I’m your partner and you didn’t think it mattered if you told me you just got a piece of your soul back or not?”. At this point Dirk had looked away from him entirely, not even keeping up the illusion of maintaining eye contact. Mr. Signless had a look of great concern on his face.

“Jake, do you know why we’re here?” Mr. Signlesses voice sounded like he was taking great effort to remain calm.

Jake tried to collect himself after his outburst, he could talk to his partner about this later. He knew they hadn’t been talking much, but he never would have thought Dirk would keep something that important from him. “I can’t say I do Mr. Signless” he said, a fake smile on his face.

“Well I  _ thought  _ Dirk would have told you,” Mr. Signless started, shooting a glare at the weapon, “and I am  _ very  _ disappointed in him for not telling you. You not being aware of what's going on really complicates things,” he sighs, bringing a had up to rub at his face as though having this conversation has exhausted him, “but I can’t say I disagree with what we’re doing here, given the circumstances”.

Jake’s voice is strained as he tries his best to maintain decorum, “I’m sorry to be rude sir, but if you could kindly tell me  _ what the bloody hell is going on”. _

“Of course,” Mr Signless starts, before he is interrupted.

“Dave and I are testing our resonance, if it’s a match I am going to become his weapon partner,” Dirk is straight faced as he talks, voice flat.

“What? That doesn’t make any sense, Dirk,” Jake’s voice was edging towards hysterical, “I’m your meister, we’re partners”.

Dirk barked out a humorless laugh. “Are we? We haven’t been able to reach resonance in months,” he was looking right at you at this point, “at this point we’re barely compatible. You can’t wield me in battle”.

“It is of my understanding Mr. English,” the teacher cut in, his voice sympathetic, “that you have been unable to complete your missions as a pair lately, and that Dirk has been wielding his soul infused swords to take out your targets.” He was calmer now that he knew what was going on. “That is not a healthy partnership, and you know as well as anyone that we cannot keep having Dirk remove pieces of his soul,” he sounded confident, as though this thing he was doing was reasonable and he was not trying to throw away what Dirk and Jake had spent years working on, trying to take away the only pillar Jake had to lean on and hide behind. Jake was a good meister, but Dirk was a genius. His weapon shape, a katana, was adaptable and desirable, and he was incredible at battle strategy. He was also one of the only things keeping Jake afloat in the rigorous academic environment of the DWMA. Jake was smart, but the combined load of regular coursework and specialized EAT class work was difficult for anybody, and he wasn’t the best at structured learning, having spent his childhood taking lessons from his grandmother. She had blended math, physics, combat, and hunting together into one hands on curriculum. He knew that if he wanted to be a real meister like his grandmother, he needed to graduate from the DWMA, but adapting his learning style had proven to be a nearly insurmountable task. Dirk had been his lifeline, he seemed to absorb every lesson with ease, and then he would tutor Jake, teaching him patiently until he found the explanation that clicked. Jake was losing Dirk, and he couldn’t afford to do that.

Even if everything they were saying was true, Jake knew he could fix it. All of their problems had started because Jake couldn’t guard his soul while bonded like Dirk could. When they had first started dating Jake had been happy. Who didn't want to be in a relationship with their best friend? But after a while Jake had started to have doubts. Between school and missions Jake was already spending a lot of time with Dirk, and Dating just increased it. It wasn't like Dirk was a terrible boyfriend, he was kind and caring. He could be overbearing, but would leave take any criticism or requests Jake had without argument. Dirk never argued with him. He always accommodated him when he asked for time for himself, but they had the same friends, hung out at the same places, slept over at each other's apartments, knew each other's secrets. It felt so serious and Jake wasn't sure he was ready for that. Jake was so careful to show everyone the Jake that he wanted them to see, and it worked. Jake was cool, confident, a naturally talented meister and student, to everyone except Dirk. That had been fine at first, but then Dirk had broken up with him.

Jake had been blindsided. He knew that Dirk could see through his act, but he had thought he had hidden his doubts well. He hadn’t changed his demeanor, he had kept his face clear. His soul shouldn’t have given him away to that extent. Sure a weapon could tell when a meister was experiencing doubt and vice versa, but it wasn't like doubt was a new emotion. Jake doubted himself all the time. Dirk shouldn’t have known what he was feeling, but how did Jake know he didn’t. It wasn’t like Dork had a typical soul. He could rip off pieces and put up shields that never came down, even during soul resonance. Jake had never seen what Dirks soul looked like, and Dirk had seen all of his. And now everything was going to shit.

Jake hadn’t been able to successfully guard his soul while maintaining a bond before, let alone resonance, but he had been practicing. It was now or never. “I can fix it. I promise you we can do it,” Jake felt the push of tears behind his eyes as he talked.

“Jake-” Dirk started, his mask was slipping, like it used to when he and Jake were alone together, the other boy made him weak.

Dave interrupted before Dirk could finish his thought. His voice had a bit of a drawl to it, Texan. “I don’t mind,” he said calmly, “I would hate to break up a good thing, if you guys can do it I’ll back right off”. He looked Jake in the eye as he finished speaking, “You just have to show us now”.

Jake was taken by surprise by the boy’s request. This was exactly what he wanted, a chance to prove himself to them, to Dirk. For some reason he felt like throwing up.

Dirk replied for him, “Okay. Let’s do it then,”. He started walking towards the center of the arena. Jake was frozen in place a moment before jogging after him. He could do this; they would do this.

Dirk stopped once he reached the center. A practice enemy had been set up, likely for Dirk and Dave’s test. Dirk looked at him, his mask slipping off completely. He looked like he was in pain as he spoke softly to Jake. “I know what you’re trying to do, Jake, and it isn’t going to work. You’re just going to hurt us both,” he started out looking Jake in the eyes, but by the time he finished his head was pointed towards the ground.

“I know what I’m doing Dirk. You just have to trust me,” Jake spoke with a confidence he didn’t possess. Dirk’s mask reappeared and he nodded stiffly in response. Dirk took a deep breath before holding out his hand to Jake.

They joined hands and Dirk took on his weapon form, the handle of the katana taking the place of Dirks fingers, it felt familiar in Jake’s grasp, just like Dirk’s hand had. The katana was uncomfortably heavy, and Jake knew it was because their bond was strained, but they would fix that. They could learn to trust each other again, as soon as he was able to hide his soul. The handle was slightly too warm, but Jake could handle that. It had been that way for about two months now. He felt Dirk’s soul reach out to him, attempting to form a bond. He reached out with his soul as well. Their souls connected. He could see the shape of Dirk’s soul, all of the ragged chunks where pieces were missing, but other than that it was a blank expanse. Jake was familiar with the experience, no emotions would come through their bond and the only noise he would hear were things Dirk was saying to him. He heard his friends voice in his head, sounding defeated, “We don’t have to do this”. Jake didn’t respond. He allowed their soul wavelengths to match up, following a familiar pattern. At this the sword became lighter in his hand, so far so good. He took a few practice swings. 

Mr. Signless looked a little hopeful where he was standing by the door, he hated to see a weapon and partner broken up and there had already been so much switching around this semester, with Aradia disappearing, Sollux and Feferi partnering up, leaving Eridan weaponless, and Gamzee flunking out of the EAT class, leaving Kanaya behind. They had tried to partner Kanaya and Eridan together, but it wasn’t a good match. It wasn’t for lack of trying, Kanaya was a sweet girl and a wonderful weapon (a rare one too, a chainsaw), but Eridan was notoriously difficult to get along with. It was a miracle that Feferi had put up with him for so long. If things didn’t work out with Jake or Dave Mr. Signless was considering having Dirk test his resonance with Eridan, maybe Dirk could teach the boy some discipline. As it were, Mr. Signless would prefer to keep the established partnership together, but it was too dangerous to let Dirk complete missions on his own, and it would be a waste to take one of their best weapon students out of the field completely. It would be best for everyone involved if they solved whatever issues they had been having today.

After their bond had been established, Dirk and Jake’s soul began to resonate. Jake felt his soul open up as their powers began to grow. It was now or never. Just like he had practiced Jake slammed down walls around his soul. The reaction was immediate, their resonance cut off with the power they had built up exploding outwards, and Dirk became molten hot in Jake's hand. Acting on instinct Jake threw the sword away from himself, bringing his hand to his chest and curling over it in pain. The blade didn’t stick itself into the floor from his throw, instead bouncing once before skittering across the floor. Dirk waited until he stopped sliding before he transformed. He was laying on his back with his hand to his head when he returned to human.

The two spectators hurried over, both of them stopping at the fallen Dirk first. “Are you okay, are you injured?” Mr. Signless asked, a note of panic in his voice. Dirk replied from his position on the ground, “I’m fine, you should check on Jake, I think I burned his hand”. Mr. Signless nodded before hurrying toward the meister who seemed to be in shock. Dave kneeled beside Dirk, not satisfied with his answer. He looked up to where Jake was still standing with anger, “What the fuck man? You threw him!”.

“Calm down bro,” Dirk said, putting a hand on the shoulder of the slightly thinner boy, “he didn’t mean to, the resonance ended badly. It hurt”.

Jake had not moved, his mind reeling. He had failed. He was going to lose Dirk. He wanted to throw up. Mr. Signless approached him. “I think we've seen enough, Jake,” he said, his voice sympathetic, but firm, “we should get you to the Dolorosa so she can look at that burn”. 

Jake looked down at his hand, most of his palm was covered in a raised red welt. It would hurt for a week or so, but it wasn’t anything serious. “I promise I’ll go right after, but I’d like to stay to watch the test if possible”. Jake already knew what would happen though. He could hear the conversation the two were having a few meters away. Dirk had calmed Dave down considerably, though he was still obviously unhappy with what had happened. The two got along well. They talked comfortably, like they had known each other for years when they couldn’t have met before this week. They were going to be compatible. Jake just lost his partner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I did Jake dirty in this one. He isn't meant to sound unhinged, but I was Very Anxious while writing this one, so that may have been it. My college might be shutting down for the semester and no one really knows what's going on. I went from not worried to very worried over the course of a few hours and this isn't supposed to be the worst of it. Anyway, this chapter might change later if I decide I hate the way I wrote Jake. I heavily project myself onto Dirk so we'll see where that goes. You can't tell yet, but Dave and Dirk are supposed to be the main characters.


End file.
